My fondest memories of my grandpa and me are of all those wonderful summers he spent with my family in California. Living in the United States, and for the most part away from much of my family in Taiwan, I looked forward to those summers when everyone would fly across the Pacific Ocean to spend a few weeks in California. There has always been something undeniably warming about a house full of family. Whenever my grandpa came, he would bring some stamp books from his beautiful collection to share with me. He had stamps from countries all around the world and just as many stories to share about each one. It is hard for me to pin point a particular stamp that I loved from his collection, but it was more that his sharing of stamps led to the most interesting discoveries of my grandpa’s life. He was undoubtedly a man of many accomplishments.

My grandpa had the ability to converse fluently in a number of different languages, something I used to brag about to my friends. Someone once told me that being able to speak more than one language widens your window to the world many fold. My grandpa exemplified this. His ability to speak so many languages allowed him to touch the lives of people all over the globe. In many of his visits to California, my mom would take us to visit his past students and friends. Even after so many years of not seeing him, they all still admired him greatly.

My grandpa had this independence and ease of life that has always inspired me to enjoy the simpler things in life. Some of my happiest moments shared with my grandpa were spent sitting on the steps of my house (where the air conditioning is strongest) reading a book. It’s in such simple moments like that where I will think of my grandpa.